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veggierunner

Red wigglers in a raised garden bed

Veggierunner
10 years ago

Ok, so I am new to composting. Have been doing some research on it, and found that due to lack of abundant carbon sources (we don't have any leaves/trees in our area and we don't get a newspaper or anything like that) that a traditional compost pile won't work for us. So we were thinking about vermicomposting but I have some questions that google hasn't been able to adequately answer for me.

(1) Do I need to worry about the carbon/nitrogen ratio of the food that I give the worms? As in, do I need to scrounge up some newspaper for them to eat, or can I just give them food scraps from the table?

(2) The dirt in my area is horrible! As a result the square foot gardens I put in this year are not thriving. So next year, I am thinking of doing some raised garden beds to help circumvent this issue. Now to the point. Can just I build my raised garden bed frames, fill it with grass clippings, some newspaper, food scraps and chuck in some worms and hope to have some good dirt in that bed next year? Why or why would this not be advisable?

(3) I really need a large volume of dirt - mine is seriously just awful! The previous owners of our house put down this black weed blocker mat pretty much all over the entire yard, so no organic materials have touched the dirt for almost a decade :(. How much can I realistically expect the red wigglers to produce over the course of the summer/fall?

Thanks so much for your replies and helping out a clueless newbie!

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